Method of and articles for producing moving pictures.



J. R. BRAY.

METHOD OF AND ARTICLES FOR PRODUCING MOVING vPICTURES.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 29, I914.

1,1 59,740. Patented Nov. 9, 1915.

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sou 0 9mm PL H/Af WBYAAENTOR v I ATTORNEY J. R. BRAY. METHOD OF AND ARTICLES'FOR PRODUCING MOVING PICTURES.

APPLICATION FILED :upvzs. 1914.

1,159,740; Patented Nov. 9, 1915.

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SOLID @LACK RW/M GREY-"-- yJm/aBA/rck W/TNESSES: INVENTOR JOHN RANDOLPH EBAY, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

METHOD OF AND ARTICLES FOR PRODUCIN G MOVING PICTURES.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 9, 1915.

Application filed July 29, 1914. Serial No. 853,974.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN RANDOLPH BRAY, a citizen of the United States, and resident of New York city, borough of Manhattan, in the county of New York and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Methods of and Articles for Producing Moving Pictures, of which the following is a specification.

In my prior and copending application, which on August 11th, 1914;, eventuated in Patent No. 1,107,193, I have disclosed and broadly claimed an invention of mine for producing moving pictures. The process there described enables me to efficiently and economically produce a type of moving pictures which may be designated as animated drawings or cartoons, and includes the pro-' duction-of a series of separate drawings or pictures, the successive ones showing some animate or inanimate object in the successive positions which it might occupy in moving from one place to another, or in performing some act. These pictures are photographed in succession upon a cincmatograph film, and from the latter are projected on the screen by the ordinary projection apparatus. In carrying out this invention, the drawings are usually made on white or light colored aotracing paper or other translucent sheet material, each picture being made, in part at least, with pen and ink.

My present invention involves certain improvements capable of use in connection with the invention disclosed in my prior patent above referred to, although certain features of my present invention might be employed independently of certain features of the invention there disclosed.

By means of my present invention, I am able to give to different parts of the picture,

a different tone or shade in a very simple and inexpensive manner, even though the original drawings or pictures be made with pen' and ink on white transparent paper. Not only does the varying of the shade or tone in different parts of the picture render the latter much more attractive and effective, and cause desired parts of the picture to stand out more distinctly, but at the same time, the giving of a darker shade or tone to a considerable portion of the picture softens the otherwise objectionable white glare and makes the picture less trying to the eyes of the observer. Furthermore, the

picture, if appearing upon the screen as black lines upon a White surface, will also show as black lines, any scratches which may be on the film due to repeated use and careless handling. By means of my invention, I am able to render these far less contranslucency, might be employed under other conditions to secure the same results.

For instance, the sheet may be of such material and thickness as to be ordinarily considered opaque, but still be sulficientlytranslucent for the present purposes if a light be placed in the rear. The sheet may be even more nearly transparent than tracing paper,

as for instance celluloid.

In order to cause a portion of the-picture to appear of the desired lighter or darker shade, I employ a shade or tone producing layer beneath a portion of the picture hearing sheet. It may be a white or light layer of tone or shade producing material under one portion of the picture, or a black or dark layer of tone or shade producing materialunder the remaining portions of the picture and may be entirely separate from the picture bearing sheet and only positioned beneath the latter at the time the picture is taken, or the layer may be carried by or formed on the picture bearing sheet itself. The particular form, character, and mounting of this layer may vary in different cases dependent upon the character of the picture, the degree of contrast which it is desired to produce between different portions of the picture and whether or not the part which it is desired to show of a contrasting tone or shade is one which assumes different positions during the pro rose of the scene. The layer may be solid bfiick, pure white, or any desired color or shade, although for ordinary purposes, all of the desired results can be accomplished by shades varying from pure white, through the various grays to jet 7 employed with a large number of separate picture bearing sheets by placing the latter separately and successively upon said layer at the time the pictures are photographed. Such a separate layer in the form of an underlay may be employed to show one wall of a building of a contrasting shade, to that ofanother wall, or to show a body of water and adjoining land of difierent shades or tones, or to form a distinct contrast between the portions of the picture above and below the horizon line, or to cause a stationary object to stand out more clearly and, distinctly than the remaining objects. The

layer corresponds in shape and position tothe outline. of the portion which it is desired to form lighter or darker in the pic'- ture. The layer may be a coating on a sheet similar to the picture bearing sheet and of the same size and with the same guide marks,

' or may be carried by or secured to an opaque sheet, or may be merely a sheet of colored material, as for instance black paper out out to the desired shape and secured to a sheet or directly to the support for the picture bearing sheet. Such a separate layer must be properly positioned in respect to guide marks or line on the shame sheet, or on the support in front of the camera, and each picture which shows the same stationary parts or the same background or setting, is superposed thereon when being photographed. By reason of the translucency of the picture bearing sheet, the shade, tone or color of the underlying layer will cause the portion of the picture directly thereover to appear of a different shade, tone or color from the remaining portion.

If the portion which it is desired shall appear of a lighter or darker tone or shade, be a moving part of the picture, in other words, a part which is represented in difierent positions in successive pictures, then instead of having the tone or shade producing layer, separate from the picture bearingsheet, and used beneath the picture only during the operation of photographing the latter, I may secure or apply said layer directly to or upon the rear or back surface of the sheet which bears ,the picture. To accomplish'this, the pictures when completed, preferably by the process described in my prior patent, may be reversed and the picture on the front will be visible upon the rear surface, with sufficient distinctness due to the transparency of the picture bearing sheet. The layer of tone or shade producing material, may then be applied to those portions of the. rear of the sheet which come within the outline of the object or portion which it is desired shall appear of the lighter or darker tone.

To secure more than two contrasting tones or shades, a white layer may be employed beneath one portion of the picture, and a black layer beneath another portion, there being no layer beneath a third portion so that the resulting picture may have three separate tones or shades. Also a layer of tone or shade material may be employed beneath one portion of the picture and applied directly to or carried by the back of the picture bearing sheet, and another layer employed beneath another portion ofthe picture but on a separate underlay. One advantage of forming the layer on a separate translucent sheet similar to the picture bearing sheet is that two separate layer bearing sheets may be superposed with the layers on separate portions thereof. One of these layers from the front of the picture would appear of a different shade or tone from the other, as one would have twothicknesses of translucent sheet material between it and the camera, while the other would have but one. For instance, a picture may have a portion of a scene or setting representing land, another portion water, and a third portion, either sky or some stationary object, and each may be made to stand out conspicuously by its contrasting shade.

In certain instances, the use of separate underlying layers of shade or tone producing material, one on the front or back of the picture bearing sheet itself, and one on a separate underlay, possesses marked advantages. For instance, if the picture includes two stationary portions made to appearof contrasting shade by a layer in the form of an underlay under one portion, and if a moving object shown in the picture in outline only, be represented as passing from a position in front of one portion to a posit1on in front of the other, then the applying of a layer in the form of an opaque coating to the back of that portion of the picture within the outline of the moving object, will serve to not only givethe moving object a contrasting shade or tone to that of the remainder of the picture, but will render that portion substantially, nontranslucent or opaque, under the conditions of use. Therefore, when the moving object is represented as passing across the dividing line between the differently shaded portions, said dividing line will not be visible through that portion of the picture within the outline of the moving object, and the latter will appear of a uniform tone throughout, irrespective of The layer may be formed very quickly and inexpensively bysuitable liquid coating compositions. This may be applied much more quickly and evenly than crayon and unlike crayon does not vary in tone with roughnesses or such disturbed surface conditions as may arise from erasures. By

7 applying the coating to the back instead of to the front of the picture bearing sheet, surface irregularities due to erasures are not encountered and any unevenness in the coating is less conspicuous from the front. Furthermore, a coating on the back does not obscure or cover up lines of the picture depicting parts of the object within the outline thereof. When such coatings are used a layer applied to the back of the picture bearing sheet will appear of a different shade from a coating applied to an underlay even though the coating be the same in character and thickness. Thus the same coating composition may be employed to produce a plurality of different shades or tones in the picture. In some cases, the layer,

either on or separate from the picture bearing sheet, may be of the full size of the picture and of uniform color, tone or shade throughout, and separate layers for successive pictures may vary in color, tone or shade, as for instance, where it is desired to indicate the approach of night .fall. The layer may be under only a portion of the picture but still not have its outline defined entirely or even at all by lines of the picture. Such an arrangement might be employed to advantage in showing the shadow of a building or other object, or to represent a ghost approaching upon the scene, or to show any part which it is desired shall be rather vague, hazy, or indistinct.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings which illustrate merely one example of my improved process, and my improved articles used in carrying out said process.

In these drawings: Figure 1, is a front view of a picture bearing sheet, the 'picture including land, water, sky, and movable and stationary objects. Fig.2, is a .rear view of the picture bearing sheet,

Fig. 5, is a front view of a sheet having 1ay-. ers of different shades or tones in different portions; and Fig. 6, is a front view of a sheet for use with the sheet shown in Fig. l, and having a layer representing an object not shown in Fig. 1.

The picture may be formed on a translu- 'cent sheet 10 in any suitable manner, either by pen and ink, or partly by pen and ink, and partly by printing, or in any other suitable manner, but is preferably formed by the process described in my prior patent above referred to. marks or lines 11, which enable the picture to be properly positioned upon another pic ture during the drawing or completing of the former and to be properly positioned upon a support at the time the picture is photographed on the moving picture film. The particular picture shown, includes land 12, sky 13, water 14, a stationary object in the form of a chair 15, and a movable object in the form of a person 16. The lines of the picture might appear as shown in Fig. 1, but I have not attempted to illustrate in this Fig, the difl'erent contrasting shades which would appear with layers of shade or tone producing material, adjacent to or upon the rear surface of the picture bearing sheet. In order to give the various parts of the picture, the desired contrasting tones,

the sky 13, and chair 15, may be left of the normal tone, the sea may be made of a slightly darker tone, and the land of a still darker tone. The entire man may be made of a still darker tone, or may be made of a tone lighted than normal or difierent portions may be made different. For instance, the shoes 20, and the belt 19, may be made of the darkest tone, while the face 18, and the hands 17, may be made lighter or whiter than the normal shade, represented by the body. To produce this result, I may employ layers-separate from the sheet for giving the tones to the land and water, and may employ layers directly on the picture bearing sheet, to give the tones to the hands, face, belt and shoes.

In the particular picture illustrated, I apply substantially non-transparent or opaque layers to portions of the back of the picture bearing sheet, preferably by means of liquid coating compositions. In Fig. 2, I have shown,-a View of the rear side of the sheet with layers 21 and 22 solid white, and layers The sheet has guide.

of the picture, with these layers applied directly to the back of the sheet thereof, will show the face and hands of a purer white than the body of the picture, and the belt and shoes will be of a darker tone due to the fact that the layers are directly on the translucent sheet and can be seen therethrough from the front.

To give the land, the desired shade, I may employ a sheet 25 shown in Fig. 3 which will have theusual guide marks 11 thereon, to insure the proper registry with the sheet 10 at the time the latter is photographed. This sheet 25 has a layer 26, of solid black, the outline of the layer corresponding to the outline of the land portion 12 of the picture. This layer may be formed by a liquid coating composition such for instance, as a lampblack composition or itmay be a piece of black paper pasted on to the sheet 25, or pasted or otherwise secured on the picture support in front of the camera.

In addition to the sheet 25 shown in Fig. 3, I may employ a sheet 27 shown in- Fig. 4, which also has the same guide marks thereon. This sheet has a single layer 28 of solid black, and corresponding in outline to the sea portion 14 of the picture. By superposing the sheet 25, upon the sheet 27, and superposing the picture bearing sheet 10 on the sheet 25, the solid black 28 will be visible through two sheets of translucent material, while the solid black portion 26 will be visible through one sheet. Thus the picture at the time it is photographed, will have the land portion of a darker tone than the sea portion, and the sea portion will be of a darker tone than the sky. l/Vhen two or more superposed layers on separate sheets are employed, it is important that all of these layer bearing sheets, with the possible exception of the bottom one, be also on translucent material.

As the layer 26 on the sheet shown in Fig. 5 may make the portion covered by said layer substantially nontransparent or opaque, it is not essential that the portion 28 of the sheet 27 be of the exact outline of the sheet portion 24 of the picture. The layer 28, may be materially larger so long as it does not extend to the sky portion of the picture, as any portion of the layer 28 extending beyond an outline corresponding to that of the sea, would be covered by the opaque layer 26. If desired, the layer 28 on the sheet 27 may correspond in size and shape to the entire land and sea portion of thepicture. Of course any portion which projects beyond the outline of the layer 28, shown in Fig. 4, would not appear in the picture, but extending it avoids the necessity ofthe exercise of great care in forming the layer 28 of the exact size and exact position. Instead of forming separate layers on separate sheets, I may employ different layers of different tones on the same sheet. In

Fig. 5, I have shown a sheet 29 with the- 'or series of sheets similar to the sheet 32 shown in Fig. 6. This sheet has a layer 33 representing a movable object which does not appear in the picture on sheet 10. By superposing the sheet 10 on the sheet 32, the object on sheet 32, will be visible butwill not stand out as distinctly as the parts of the picture itself. The absence of a sharp outline for this object and the comparative dimness thereof will give ghost-like appearance which may be used with marked effect in some pictures.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to protect by Letters Patent, is

1. A process of producing moving pictures, which includes forming a picture on one surface of each of a series of translucent sheets, forming a layer of shade or tone producing material adjacent to the opposite surface, said layer corresponding in shape and size to a predetermined portion of the picture and positioned directly beneath said portion, and photographing said pictures in succession on a cinematograpli 2. A process of producing moving pictures, which includes forming a series of pictures, successive pictures showing the same object in successive positions, and each picture being formed on a translucent sheet and having a layer of shade or tone producing material at the opposite surface of the sheet and visible therethrough.

3. A process of producing moving pictures, which includes forming a series of pictures, successive pictures showing the same object in successive positions, and each picture being formed on a translucent sheet and having a layer of shade or tone producing material at the opposite surface of the sheet and visible therethrough, and corresponding in shape, size and position to a predetermined portion of said picture.

4. A process of producing moving pictures, which includes forming a series of pictures upon separate sheets of translucent material, the separate pictures showing the By employing same object in successive positions, and photographing said pictures in succession on a cinematograph film, with a layer of shade or tone producing material beneath a portion only of said picture, and visible through the translucent picture bearing sheet.

5. A process of producing moving pictures, which includes forming a series of pictures on successive sheets of translucent material, the successive pictures showing some object in successive positions, and photographing said pictures in succession on a cinematograph film, and with a layer of shade or tone producing material at the opposite surface of the sheet and visible therethrough, .and corresponding in size, shape and position to a predetermined portion of the picture.

6. A process of producing moving pictures, which includes forming a series of pictures on successive sheets of translucent material, the successive pictures showing some object in successive positions, and photographing said pictures in succession on a cinematograph film, and with a layerof shade or tone producing material at the opposite surface of the sheet and visible therethrough, the outline of said layer corresponding to, and coinciding with the outline of a predet'ermined portion of said picture.

7. A process of producing moving pictures, which includes forming a series of pictures on separate sheets of translucent material, the successive pictures showing the same object in successive positions, forming a layer of tone or shade producing material from a liquid coating composition and corresponding in shape, size, and position with a predetermined portion of said picture, and photographing said pictures in succession on a cinematograph film, said layer being visible through the translucent picture bearing sheets.

8. A process of producing moving pictures, which includes forming a series of pictures, each upon one surface of a sheetof translucent material, and applying to the rear surface of each of said sheets, a layer of tone or shade producing material visible from the front side of the picture.

9. A process of producing moving pictures, which includes forming a series of pictures, each upon one surface of a sheet of translucent material, and applying to the rear surface of each of said sheets, a layer of tone or shade producing material visible from the front side of the picture, and corresponding in shape, size and position to a predetermined portion of the picture.

10. A process of producing moving pictures, which includes forming a series of pictures, each upon one surface of a sheet of translucent material, and applying to the rear surface of each of said sheets, a substantially opaque coating of a contrasting shade or tone visible from the front side of the picture.

11. A process of producing moving pictures, which includes forming a series of pictures showing the same object in successive positions and upon translucent sheet material, forming a layer of tone or shade producing material on a separate sheet, su-

forming a picture upon a sheet of translucent material, superposing said picture upon said support with said layer beneath a predetermined portion of the picture, and photographing said picture.

13. A process of producing moving pictures, which includes forming a picture on a sheet of translucent material, and including a representation of a stationary object, and a movable object forming a layer of tone or shade producing material directly upon the rear surface of the sheet, and having its outline coinciding with a portion of the outline of said movable object, forming a layer of tone or shade producing material on a separate sheet, and corresponding in shape and form to a portion of the stationary object, superposing said picture bearing sheet upon said last-mentioned layer with the outline of the latter in proper registry with the corresponding outline in the picture, and photographing said picture.

14. A process of producing moving pictures, which includes the forming of a series of separate pictures on separate translucent sheets, successive pictures showing the same .movable object in successive positions, forming a layer of tone or shade producing material on a separate sheet. and corresponding in form and shape to the portion of the background or setting of the picture, and forming a series of lavers corresponding in outline to certain outlines of the movable object, and photographing said pictures separately and in succession on a cinematograph film, each picture when photographed, having first-mentioned layer beneath and in registry with a portion of the background or setting of the picture, and having one of secondmentioned layers beneath and in registry with the corresponding part of said movable object.

15. In combination, a sheet of translucent material, having a picture upon one surface thereof, and a layer of tone or shade P sponding in shape and form to a predeter producing material in the rear of the picture and visible therethrough, and corremined portion of said picture.

17. In combination, a sheet of translucentmaterial, having a picture upon one surface thereof, and a coating of substantially opaque tone or shade producing material upon the rear surface, and corresponding in outline to a predetermined portion of the picture, and visible through said sheet.

18. In combination, a sheet of translucent material, having a line picture upon one surface thereof, and, a coating of tone or shade producing material upon the opposite surface, the shape and position of the latter being determined by the constituent parts of. the picture.

19. In combination, a sheet of translucent material, having a picture upon one surface thereof, and a second sheet having a layer of tone or shade producing material thereon, and corresponding in shape and outline to a predetermined portion of said picture, and visible through the latter when said sheets are superposed.

20. In combination, a sheet of translucent material, having a picture and a guide mark thereon, and a second sheet having a similar guide. mark and a coating of shade or tone producing material corresponding in shape and position to a predetermined part of said picture, when said sheets are superposed With said guide marks, and in registry.

21. In combination, a sheet of translucent material, having av guide mark and a picture thereon, and a separate sheet having a similar guide mark and a layer of shade or tone producing materialvisible through a portion of said first-mentioned sheet when said sheets are superposed with guide marks in registry.

Signed at New York city, in the county of New York, and State of New York, this 28th day of July, A. D., 1914.

JOHN RANDOLPH BRAY. 

